Gold Jumps Over $1600 as Cyprus Bail-Out Hits Bank Savers

Wholesale gold leapt 1% against the Dollar and 2.3% against the Euro at the start of Asian trade Monday, as global shares sank and major-government bonds rose following the Cyprus bail-out deal announced by European politicians at the weekend.

"[German negotiators] were hand in hand with Finns," says an unnamed official quoted by the Financial Times, "who were much more dogmatic" in forcing a levy worth €7 billion on ordinary bank depositors as part of the €17bn deal.

"Scenes of Cypriots lining up at cash machines raised the specter of capital flight elsewhere," says Bloomberg, while Reuters claims that today's Bank Holiday may be followed by a forced shutdown on Tuesday to allow parliament to discuss and vote on the depositor levy, priced at 9.9% of savings accounts over €100,000 and 6.7% below.

First hitting a 13-session high above $1608 per ounce, Dollar prices to buy gold then slipped back as European stock markets followed Asia in dropping over 1%.

The gold price in Euros jumped 2.3% at the start of Asian trade, hitting 5-week highs above €1240 per ounce as the single currency hit new 3-month lows vs. the Dollar.

Gold priced in Sterling held flat, however, as the British Pound surged nearly 2 cents to $1.51 on the foreign exchange market.

"One of the reasons gold has been coming off," says UBS analyst Tom Price, "is that there has been a view that the risk in Europe was limited and most of their financial market issues were resolved.

"This uncertainty could provide a brand new support for gold for days or even weeks."

Further ahead, "Global liquidity is rising," says London market-maker HSBC, trimming its 2013 average gold forecast from $1730 per ounce to $1700 but noting that "the Bank of Japan has joined the QE party and the Fed shows no let-up.

Investors in gold-backed trust funds led by the $63-billion SPDR Gold Shares cut their holdings last week for the 5th week running, reducing overall exchange-traded gold fund holdings to a new 6-month low of around 2,500 tonnes.

On the futures market, however, speculative traders grew their exposure to rising prices as a group in the week-ending last Tuesday. Latest data from US regulator the CFTC says the net long position of bullish minus bearish bets rose 7.4% from early March's 54-month low, the fastest jump since September.

"To sustain gold prices at $2000 by 2016", says analysis from investment bank Merrill Lynch, investors would need to buy gold in quantities equal only to 2008 – almost 50% below 2011's record 1,700 tonnes – thanks to "steady increases of spending on non-essential items like jewelry in more affluent emerging markets."

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